It's time to discuss your failures

If we could sit down and have a chat, what would we talk about? Chances are pretty good we’d talk about business, or perhaps politics...maybe even religion, but would we talk about your failures? Or about mine?

Blogger: Sam Saggers, CEO, Positive Real Estate

Why is it that failure is a topic we don’t want to discuss - even with our best mates? I believe it’s pride or perhaps a bit of shame, especially if our loss was a result of what we perceive as a fault within our character.

But what would happen if we did discuss our failures? I believe we’d find opportunity tucked away between the layers of disappointment. Opportunity to study what went wrong and how to keep it from going wrong the next time OR choose another path to reach our destination.

For the sake of illustration, let’s assume that you’re reading this because you’re at a point in your property investing life where you’re feeling a bit discouraged and wonder if property investing is really right for you.

I cannot, unfortunately, answer that question for you - you’ll have to decide for yourself, but what I can do is tell you that should you choose to give up now, you’ll never know what “could have been”.

Using myself as an example, I’d like to share a bit of a story, which I hope will encourage you to pursue this interest of yours, no matter the roadblocks you may encounter along the way with an eventual outcome like me of a lucrative income from real estate investing.

My first property purchase was a failure. In fact, not only did I not achieve any capital growth, I lost my very hard earned savings of $30,000 dollars because I had purchased in the wrong market. I let my emotions make the call. Ouch.

Needless to say, I obviously never gave up because today I have an investment property portfolio worth millions and am employed in the pursuit of helping ordinary people - just like you; teaching them how to invest in property to create wealth for themselves and their families.

My journey began more than 15 years ago when I set out to achieve what many individuals born into a station similar to mine (you know, the one without the proverbial silver spoon exiting my facial cavity) have not - create a property portfolio which affords me the lifestyle I could not have dreamed of as a youth.

On the advice of my office workmates, my licensee and my franchise I enthusiastically sunk $30,000 into what I believed was an “ideal property investment” in the area where I worked. The property was the most I could afford to buy at the time, however the decision to buy it was based on emotions, rather than economics.

In my blissful ignorance, I assumed that all I would need to do is buy an investment property, hold it and wait for it to grow in value. I had no solid grasp of factors like market drivers, property courses or buying strategies - I just knew that I wanted to invest in property, this was a “good one” and here we go...

As you might imagine, the poor decision process led to a poor result.

Not only did the property NOT go up in value, it started to take cash from my back pocket as it was heavily negatively geared. Heavily. I couldn’t save money because any extra cash was swallowed up in the “money pit” of an investment I’d gotten myself into.

Bottom line, I could either wait for the market to turn - which would, as all signs indicated, take years before regaining its strength, or I could sell, taking a loss in the process.

I sold, effectively tossing my $30K into the marketplace, which left me both devastated and disgruntled.

So what did I do next, you ask? Losing this much money was no fun and it made me question why it happened...and more pointedly, why to me? I looked hard at the mentors and peers I had surrounded myself with and came to the unsettling realisation that these individuals knew little to nothing about how to invest in property. Obviously, something had to change. I had to change it. So I did.

I learned everything I could about investing in property, surrounded myself with experienced investors who knew all of the ins and outs of the business - and then took action! Following the same basic principles of property investing, I have bought, sold and traded many properties over the years, growing my portfolio to where it is now, and enjoying the freedom of choice it affords me.

However, there’s something I enjoy even more than the financial security gained by real estate investment. I enjoy the chance I’ve been given to share with others the knowledge I’ve gained as a result of my successes AND my failures. I guess you could say that, in essence, every time our clients succeed it makes my losses pale in comparison!

No matter the situation you might find yourself in, there’s a way to resolve it and my advice is to find someone who can teach you how to invest in property by passing on their experiences and knowledge – a mentor. It may require some sacrifice, or perhaps take an unexpected turn, but realise that your failures - and you’ll have them because like me, you’re human after all - will, in hindsight, be what drove you to succeed.

Contact Sam Saggers

About the Blogger

Sam Saggers is the CEO of Positive Real Estate, one of Australia's leading property investment and educational companies and highly sought-after buyers agencies. As a licensed real estate agent in every state of Australia, Sam's passion is assisting people to invest successfully in the Australian property market. He has personally brokered over 1,600 property deals in his fifteen-year career and has helped to educate more than 5,000 people in real estate principles through Positive Real Estate. Sam is the co-author of Think and Grow Rich In Property by Stuart Zadel and How to be in Debt for Millions and Be Happy About itand is currently in the process of writing another book on investing in property in Australia. Sam Saggers is also a keynote speaker on real estate and has recently founded the Property Wholesales Co-operative.